NEWS RELEASES
New National Park Designation in West Virginia
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Charleston Gazette-Mail's website.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that W. Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has introduced a bill that would designate New River Gorge National River and surrounding area a National Park, or the New River Gorge National Park. The New River Gorge National River has been a unit of the National Park Service since its creation in 1978. “The New River Gorge is a special part of West Virginia and a real source of pride for our state,” Capito said in the article by Gazette-Mail writer Rick Steelhammer.
The national park status would not change the way the 72,808-acre preserve of canyons, cliffs, forested plateaus and whitewater rapids is currently managed, with hunting, rafting, fishing, bicycling and Bridge Day BASE-jumping permitted as “traditional” uses of the land. It takes an act of Congress to bring national park status to national rivers, not Presidential designation. The move to re-designate the Gorge as a national park was initiated by a group of whitewater outfitters, who saw the name change as a way to give the preserve a higher profile and attract more visitors, at virtually no cost, due to the National Park “brand” as an outdoor attraction worth visiting.
For additional information on the New River Gorge, visit the NPS website.